King s College and the Early Days of 
Columbia College 

By John B. Pine, L.H.D. 

A Paper Read at the Nineteenth Annual 

Meeting of the New York State 

Historical Association 

October 3, 1917 



King's College and the Early Days of 
Columbia College 

By John B. Pine, L.H.D. 

A Paper Read at the Nineteenth Annual 

Meeting of the New York State 

Historical Association 

October 3, 19 17 



TrsT 






tJNIVERSITY PRINTING OFFICE 
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY 



King's College and the Early Days 
of Columbia College 

THE title of the paper which I have been asked to read 
carries us back to the colonial period of the City of 
New York in the Province of New York in America, 
as it was then called, and we should picture to ourselves the 
city as it then existed to realize how great an event was the 
founding of the first college in the Province, almost the first in 
America. It is the background which makes the picture and 
gives to the incidents and figures their true value, and so great 
has been the transformation of the city since the College was 
founded that it is not easy to realize how primitive were the 
conditions under which it came into being or visualize the town 
as it was at that time. When a college was first proposed, 
the city had less than six thousand inhabitants, one-sixth of 
whom were negroes. For a place of this size the project was 
certainly ambitious and far-sighted. When the College was 
actually founded in 1754, the population did not exceed twenty 
thousand, though the city had grown greatly in importance and 
attractiveness as witness the description of the Swedish traveler, 
Kalm, who travelled in this country in 1748 and who wrote: 

"In size it comes nearest to Boston and Philadelphia; but 
with regard to its fine buildings, its opulence, and extensive 
commerce, it disputes the preference with them." In describ- 
ing the streets he says, "Most of them are paved, except in high 
places, where it has been found useless. In the chief streets 
there are trees planted, which in summer give them a fine ap- 
pearance. . . I found it extremely pleasant to walk in the 
town for it seems quite like a garden. . . Most of the houses 
are built of bricks; and are generally strong and neat, and 

[3] 



king's college and COLUMBIA COLLEGE 

several stories high. . . Many of the houses had a balcony 
on the roof, on which the people used to sit in the summer sea- 
son; and thence they had a pleasant view of a great part of the 
town, and, likewise, a part of the adjacent water, and of the 
opposite shore." 

In earlier days the city had been stockaded as a protection 
against Indians, and as late as 1745 the dread of a French and 
Indian invasion was so great that a line of palisades and block 
houses was erected from the foot of Cherry Street on the 
east to the foot of Warren Street on the west, only a short 
distance north of the present City Hall, Another author, writ- 
ing in 1753, states that "The city of New York consists of about 
twenty-five hundred buildings. It is a mile in length, and at a 
medium' not above half that in breadth." Such were the sur- 
roundings of the College erected on the banks of the Hudson in 
1756, and President Duer has left us a sketch of one of the 
Governors of the College which is fairly typical. "I have the 
good old gentleman at this moment distinctly before me, in his 
buzz wig, three-cornered hat, gold-headed cane, and silver 
buckles on his well-polished shoes." Fortunately not all of the 
Governors could properly be described as 'old' gentlemen, but 
they were gentlemen of the old school, who had gained promi- 
nence and respect in the colony, and were themselves well edu- 
cated. Their persistent efforts show that they were keenly 
appreciative of the great importance of securing for the colony 
and its coming generations the educational advantages afforded 
by the mother country, where their views found such strong 
sympathy and support that in 1762 a Royal Brief was issued 
under the Great Seal of Great Britain, authorizing the making 
of a collection, as expressed in the brief, 'from house to house' 
for the joint and equal benefit of King's College and the College 
of Philadelphia. 

While the year 1754 is the date of the incorporation of King's 
College, now known as Columbia University, it should not be 
supposed that the College established at that time came into 

[4I 



KING S COLLEGE AND COLUMBIA COLLEGE 

being as the result of a sudden inspiration, for the annals of the 
preceding fifty years prove that an institution of higher learning 
had long been desired in the colony, and that the founding of 
King's College was the culmination of protracted effort. 

During the early part of the eighteenth century, the Society 
for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts was the most 
active agency for promoting education as well as religion in the 
colonies, and in 1702 we find Governor Lewis Morris of New 
Jersey writing to the Society that "New York is the Center of 
English America & a Proper Place for a Colledge," and calling 
attention to the fact that "The Queen has a Farm of about 
32 Acres of Land . . & that Farm in a little time will be of con- 
siderable value, & its a pity such a thing should be lost for want 
of asking, wch at another time wont be so Easily obtained." 
At this time Lord Cornbury was Governor of the Province of 
New York, and apparently he was in sympathy with the project 
of establishing a college in the colony, and of using at least a 
portion of the Queen's Farm, or King's Farm, as it was gener- 
ally called, as a site for such college, as the grant of the farm 
which he subsequently made to Trinity Church upon the peti- 
tion of its vestry seems to have been qualified by a condition to 
this effect. This is shown by the following very significant entry 
which appears in the minutes of the Vestry of Trinity Church 
for February 19, 1703: "It being moved which way the King's 
Farm which is now vested in Trinity Church should be let to 
farm.'*'It was unanimously agreed that the Rector and Church- 
wardens should wait upon my Lord Cornbury, the Gov'r to 
know what part thereof his Lordp. did design towards the 
College which his Lordp. designs to have built." From this 
entry the inference is unavoidable that King's Farm was 
granted to Trinity Church upon an understanding, if not a 
condition, that a portion of the Farm should be set apart for a 
college. Historic accuracy demands that the importance of 
this fact should be recognized, as it proves that the subsequent 
grant, in 1755, by Trinity Church to King's College of a small 

[5] 



KING S COLLEGE AND COLUMBIA COLLEGE 

part of King's Farm was the performance of a condition and 
not a mere gratuity ; and that the Church in making the grant 
was discharging an obHgation. The land conveyed to the Col- 
lege consisted of but little more than two blocks and was a 
very small proportion of the Farm, perhaps as much as one- 
tenth of the tract, which included substantially all the land 
lying between Vesey Street and Canal Street, Church Street 
and the Hudson River, but the land deeded to the College was 
well situated for that period and afforded an admirable site. 

Another reference to the establishment of a college, which 
tends to confirm the implication g,fforded by the records of 
Trinity Church, appears in the Proceedings of the Society for 
the Propagation of the Gospel, in 1704, which recite that: 

A Latin School is likewise established at New York, by the influence of his 
Ex. the Lord Cornbury, with 2 others (i.e., schools), by which means sound 
Religion visibly gains ground there. There are also proposals going on for 
Building a College on the Queen's new Farm by subscription. 

Unfortunately, nothing more is heard of the college for many 
years, but the Latin School materialized. 

In 1702, an act was passed by the General Assembly of the 
Province for the establishment of a Grammar Free School in 
the City of New York, and it is interesting to note that the 
Common Council promptly (December 23, 1702) petitioned 
Lord Cornbury to recommend to the Queen "that her Majesty 
be most graciously pleased to appropriate a part of the farme, 
commonly called the Kings farme lying within this city for the 
encouragement of the said School." In 1704 and 1705 licenses 
were granted to give instruction "in the English, Latin and 
Greek tongues or languages, and also in the arts of writing and 
arithmetick." 

Other schools, including that now known as "Trinity School," 
were established by the Venerable Society, and the efforts of the 
Society to provide schooling for the Indians as well as for the 
children of the colony were persistent. The passage of the act 
of 1 702 indicates a desire on the part of the inhabitants of the 

[6] 



KING S COLLEGE AND COLUMBIA COLLEGE 

Province to secure higher education for their children than that 
afforded by the common schools established by the Dutch and 
continued under the English administration, but the Latin 
School established in 1702 seems to have been abandoned in 
1709. Some twenty years later Alexander Malcolm opened a 
private school for teaching Latin, Greek and the Mathematics, 
and in 1732 an act was passed by the General Assembly of the 
Province for the establishment of a public school in the City of 
New York for instruction in these subjects. 

In 1737 another act was passed embodying the same general 
provisions, under which the Rev. Mr. Malcolm conducted a 
Latin School for several years. The inference is reasonable 
that the Latin School was intended to train boys for college. 
In this connection the editor of 'Annals of Education',^ pub- 
lished by the Regents of the University of the State of New 
York, remarks that, "Both the schools referred to may have 
been vitally, if not formally, connected with the repeated pro- 
posals and attempts, beginning as early as 1703 to found a 
college in this Province. . . We can hardly doubt that there 
was some vital relation between the various movements, how- 
ever spasmodic and disconnected, which gave corporate exist- 
ence, first, to two temporary institutions of the academic grade, 
and, finally, to a permanent College." 

Smith's "History of New York" speaks of the movement for 
founding a college as a "project early in the eye of the patrons 
of the public school formerly trusted to the care of Mr. Mal- 
colm, ^ and the Hon. Benjamin F. Butler, in an address before 
the Albany Institute in 1830, refers to Malcolm's School as the 
"germ of Columbia College."^ 

The efforts for the advancement of higher education extend- 
ing over so many years finally found, expression in 1746 in the 
passage of an act by the General Assembly "for raising the sum 
hi £2,250, by a Public Lottery for this Colony, & for the ad- 

^Proceedingsof the Sixth Anniversary of the University Convocation, 1870. Page 184. 
^Smith's History of New York, 11, 93. 
* Albany Institute Transactions i, 179. 

[7] 



KING S COLLEGE AND COLUMBIA COLLEGE 

vancement of Learning and towards the Founding of a College 
within the same." The act recites that "so good and laudable a 
design must readily excite the inhabitants of this Colony to 
become adventurers in a lottery of which the profits shall be 
employed for the foundation of a College." The lottery, the 
manuscript record of which is preserved among the archives of 
the University, was duly held, and as a result of this and subse- 
quent lotteries, a sum amounting to £3,443 i8s. was in 1751 
vested in Trustees who were authorized to receive proposals 
as to the location of the college. Trinity Church promptly 
offered to deed to the Trustees "any reasonable quantity 
of the Church Farm (formerly known as 'the King's Farm', 
which is not let out) for the erecting and use of a college." * This 
offer was accepted and the intention of the original grant that a 
portion of the Farm should be devoted to a site for a college 
was realized. 

The sequence of events thus outlined shows that the seed of 
the College was planted in 1702, and that the interval of more 
than fifty years which elapsed before it took form was a period 
of germination commensurate with the growing ambition of the 
Province for educational advantages. 

But even now the College was not permitted to come into 
existence without a further struggle. Most of its friends and 
supporters were desirous of securing a royal charter ; but their 
efforts were bitterly opposed by William Livingston and other 
Presbyterians, who insisted that such a charter would render 
the College a mere appendage of the Church of England and 
would exclude all other denominations from participating in its 
advantages. Wholly unwarranted as was this opposition, it 
resulted in delaying the granting of the charter, and in depriv- 
ing the College of one-half the money raised by public lotteries. 
In spite of its enemies, however, the charter incorporating the 
Governors of the College of New York in the City of New York 
in America, and providing for the establishment of King's 

^Minutes of the Vestry, March 5, 1752. 



KING S COLLEGE AND COLUMBIA COLLEGE 

College, passed the seals on October 31, 1754. The terms of 
the instrument sufficiently refute the assertions of Livingston 
and his associates; for while it provides that the president shall 
be a member of and in communion with the Church of England, 
and that a collection of prayers from the liturgy of that church 
shall be read in the College, it expressly prohibits the enact- 
ment by the Governors of any statute or ordinance which shall 
"exclude any person of any religious denomination whatever 
from equal liberty and advantages of education, or from any of 
the degrees, privileges, benefits or immunities of the said College 
on account of his particular tenets in the matter of religion." 

The importance of the undertaking as it was regarded at 
the time may be inferred from the list of Governors named in 
the charter which included the most Reverend Father in God, 
Thomas, Lord Archbishop of Canterbury; the Right Honor- 
able Dunk, Earl of Halifax, First Lord Commissioner for Trade 
and Plantations; the Governor of the Province; the eldest 
Councilor of the Province; the Judges of the Supreme Court 
of Judicature of the Province ; the Secretary, the Treasurer, and 
the Attorney-General of the Province ; the Speaker of the General 
Assembly; the Mayor of the City of New York; the Rector of 
Trinity Church; the Senior Minister of the Reformed Protes- 
tant Dutch Church; the Minister of the Ancient Lutheran 
Church; the Minister of the French Church; the Minister of 
the Presbyterian Congregation; the President of the College, 
and twenty-four of the most prominent and influential resi- 
dents of the Colony. 

Early in 1754, in anticipation of the granting of the charter. 
Dr. Samuel Johnson of Stratford, Connecticut, had been in- 
vited to become the president of the new College, and the Gov- 
ernors were singularly fortunate in their choice. He had already 
been sought in a like capacity by the College of Philadelphia 
(now the University of Pennsylvania), and was recognized in 
England as well as in this country as one of the leading scholars 
of his time. Oxford had conferred upon him the degree of 

[9] 



king's college and COLUMBIA COLLEGE 

Doctor of Sacred Theology, and his work 'Elementa Philo- 
sophica', published by his friend, Benjamin Franklin in 1752, 
had been reprinted in England. But Dr. Johnson was not only 
a scholar; he was a man of attractive and strong personality, 
great capacity, broad views, and remarkable prescience. The 
latter qualities are shown by the 'Advertisement' which he 
published on May 31, 1754, to the effect that the Trustees of 
the intended Seminary or College of New York had concluded 
to set up a course of instruction in the learned languages and in 
the liberal arts and sciences, and that he would begin giving 
tuition on the ensuing first of July in the vestry room of the 
new school house of Trinity Church. The announcement, after 
stating the requirements of admission, viz. : arithmetic, as far 
as division and reduction, Latin and Greek grammar, Tully's 
Orations, the first books of Virgil's Aeneid, and some of the 
first chapter of the Gospel of St. John in Greek, proceeds to set 
forth the objects and purposes of the College ; and in this state- 
ment is to be found the clearest reflection of Dr. Johnson's 
religious, philosophical, and educational views as to the aim and 
policy of the College. "It is to be understood that as to reli- 
gion," he says, "there is no intention to impose on the scholars 
the peculiar tenets of any particular sect of Christians : but to 
inculcate upon their tender minds the great principles of Chris- 
tianity and morality In which true Christians of each denomi- 
nation are generally agreed . . . and as to any peculiar tenets, 
every one is left to judge freely for himself." Having thus an- 
nounced the religious character of the College, and avowed its 
absolute catholicity, Dr. Johnson set forth the educational de- 
sign of the College, as projected In his mind, as follows: "To In- 
struct and perfect the Youth in the learned Languages and In 
the Arts of Reasoning exactly, of writing correctly, and speak- 
ing eloquently; and In the arts of numbering and measuring, of 
Surveying and Navigation, of Geography and History, of Hus- 
bandry, Commerce and Government ; and In the Knowledge of 
all Nature In the Heavens above, and in the Air, Water and 



KING S COLLEGE AND COLUMBIA COLLEGE 

Earth around us, and the various Kinds of Meteors, Stones, 
Mines and Minerals, Plants and Animals and of every Thing 
useful for the Comfort, the Convenience and Elegance of Life, 
in the chief Manufactures relating to any of these things: And, 
finally, to lead them from the Study of Nature to the Knowledge 
of themselves and of the God of Nature, and their Duty to Him, 
themselves and one another, and every Thing that can contri- 
bute to their true Happiness, both here and hereafter." 

In thus outlining the curriculum of the College, Dr. Johnson 
shows how broad was the interpretation which he placed upon 
the terms 'Liberal Arts and Sciences' as used in the charter, and 
indicates his intention to secure for the infant College a range of 
education far wider and higher than that of any institution 
then existing either in England or America. In this respect the 
origin of Columbia differs from that of any other of the older 
Colleges established in this country in that it came into exis- 
tence, not as an overgrown school or academy, not as an in- 
stitution for educating youth for the ministry, but as a 
fullfledged College in the modern sense of the term. So 
comprehensive is the 'advertisement' that it includes all the 
subjects, with scarcely an exception, now taught in Columbia 
University, and the fact that a century and a half has been 
required to attain his ideals serves to indicate how far in ad- 
vance of his time was the author of the prospectus. It may 
fairly be said of President Johnson, not only that 'he made 
King's College possible', but that he laid the foundation for 
the University which it has since become. 

Foresight, courage, and devotion were demanded of the 
President of the College, for when he met his first class of eight 
students he was the sole instructor, and during the eight years 
of his incumbency he never had more than two assistants. Hav- 
ing been consulted as to the draft of the charter, and having 
taken an active part in securing it, it seems to have devolved 
on Dr. Johnson to give the College material form and to raise 
the necessary funds. A site had been secured as already nar- 

[II] 



KINGS COLLEGE AND COLUMBIA COLLEGE 

rated, and on August 23, 1756, the cornerstone of the first 
building was laid. The ceremony is quaintly described in the 
New York Gazette or Weekly Post Boy, as follows : 

Laft Monday, was laid by his Excellency, Sir Charles Hardy, our 
Governor, the Firf t Stone of King's College, in this City. On which Occafion 
the Honourable James De Lancey Efquire; our Lieutenant Governor, 
with the Governors of the College and Mr. Cutting the Tutor with the stu- 
dents met at Mr. Willett's, and thence proceeded to the House of Mr. Van- 
denbergh, at the Common, whither his Excellency came in his Chariot, and 
proceeded with them about One o'Clock to the College ground, near the river 
on the Northwest Side of the City, where a Stone was prepared, with the fol- 
lowing infcription ; 

Then follows the Latin inscription which may be translated : 

This firft Stone of this College, called King's, eftablifhed by royal charter, 
for the honour of Almighty God, and the Advancement of public Good, 
both in Church and State, was laid by his Excellency, Sir Charles 
Hardy, Knight, the very Worthy Governour of this Province, Auguft 23d, 
An. Dom. 1756. 

After the Stone was laid, a Health was drank to his Majefty, and Succefs 
to his Arms, and to Sir Charles and Profperity to the College, and to the 
Advancement of true Religion, Loyalty, and Learning, under his Adminiftra- 
tion; Upon which the Reverend Dr. Johnfon, Prefident of the College, made 
the following fhort Congratulatory Speech in Latin. 

Then follows the address concluding with the invocation, 
which is still used in the University Chapel. 

May God Almighty grant, that this College, thus happily founded, may 
ever be enriched with his blessing; that it may increafe and flourifh, and be 
carried on to its intire Perfection, and to the Glory of his Name, to the Ad- 
vancement of his true Religion and good Literature, and to the greateft Ad- 
vantage of the Public Weal, to all Pofterities for evermore. 

Which being done, the Governors and Pupils laid each his Stone, and 
feveral other Gentlemen, and then they returned to Mr. Willett's; where 
there was a very elegant Dinner; after which the ufual loyal Healths were 
drank, and Prosperity to the College ; and the whole was conducted with the 
utmoft Decency and Propriety. 

The original cornerstone is preserved among the cherished 
possessions of Columbia University, together with the Royal 

[I2l 



KING S COLLEGE AND COLUMBIA COLLEGE 

Charter, engrossed on vellum, the corporate seal, presented 
to the College in 1755 and recently recovered after having been 
lost for over a hundred years, and the copper crown which sur- 
mounted the flag staff of King's College and which has become 
the emblem of the University. 

The earliest view we have of the College rspresents it as 
standing among fields and meadows on the northerly outskirts 
of the city, and President Cooper describes it as situated 
"about one hundred and fifty yards from the Hudson River 
which it overlooks: commanding from the eminence on which 
it stands a most extensive and beautiful prospect of the oppo- 
site shore and country of New Jersey, and of New York Bay 
with its islands 'being totally unencumbered by any adjacent 
buildings'." 

The first Commencement was held in St. George's Chapel on 
June 21, 1758, when eight students were graduated, and, ac- 
cording to a contemporary newspaper, "Such was the interest 
manifested in the new institution that a new impulse seemed to 
be given to its prosperity." In 1760, the College Hall was so far 
completed that students "began to lodge and diet in it." At this 
time there were thirty students. This building, which was to 
house the College for nearly a century, stood near the corner 
now formed by Park Place and Church Street. Dr. Francis in 
his address on 'Old New York' describes the College as "justly 
proud of her healthy and beautiful locality, laved almost up to the 
borders of her foundations by the flowing streamsof the Hudson." 

President Johnson's activities were multifarious, and in- 
cluded not only teaching, but efforts to raise funds both in this 
country and in England. In order to relieve him of some of the 
labor Imposed by the growing College, and also to provide a 
successor In the event of his resignation, the Governors upon 
the recommendation of the Archbishop of Canterbury ap- 
pointed the Rev. Myles Cooper, A.M., Fellow of Queen's 
College, Oxford, to be professor of moral philosophy and as- 
sistant to the president. 

[13] 



KING S COLLEGE AND COLUMBIA COLLEGE 

In 1763, Dr. Johnson felt compelled to resign on account of 
age and failing health, and his loss was irreparable. His last 
official act was to secure the adoption of a new set of ordi- 
nances and a new and extended curriculum, as well as provision 
for the establishment of a grammar school in connection with 
the College; a fitting consummation of the broad and liberal 
policy upon which he founded the College and directed its ad- 
ministration during the first and most critical years of its 
existence. To his strong and wise personality the College owes 
a debt which is gratefully acknowledged by the University of 
today. 

The election of Myles Cooper as president followed almost 
immediately. He was in every respect, except that he was a 
fine classical scholar, a marked contrast to his predecessor, but 
his youth, for he was only twenty-six years old when he took 
office, his wit, and his social qualities made him very popular 
during the first years of his administrations, and the College 
prospered ; a Medical School was established and a Law School 
was projected. Dr. Cooper was active in promoting the inter- 
ests of the College, and through his influence it received many 
gifts, particularly from Oxford University. His student life at 
Oxford seems to have been one of the strongest influences upon 
his character, and his views — political, religious, and educa- 
tional — ^were always those of Oxford. He wrote to General 
Washington, whose adopted son Parke Custis was a student in 
the College, that the course of study was modelled upon Queen's 
College ; and the records show that it was his ambition to en- 
large the College into a University, on the plan of Oxford, com- 
prising a number of colleges, of which King's should be one. This 
fact has become known only through the discovery by the writer 
in the Rolls Office in London of the draft of a proposed charter 
for "The American University in the Province of New York." 
This charter, drafted by the Governors of King's College, evi- 
dently under the inspiration of President Cooper, and ap- 
proved on August 4, 1774, was forwarded by Lieutenant Gov- 

[14] 



KING S COLLEGE AND COLUMBIA COLLEGE 

ernor Cadwalader Golden to Earl Dartmouth, at that time 
Principal Secretary of State for the American department ; and 
it has a special interest to the student of the history of the State 
of New York. The chief provisions of this charter were that 
King's College should be "the mother of the American Uni- 
versity," that King's and all other colleges which should there- 
after be erected within the Province of New York should be 
members of a single University to be known as "The American 
University in the Province of New York ;" that the government 
of the University should be vested in a Board of Regents ; that 
the officers of the University should be a Chancellor and a Vice- 
Chancellor; that each college should have a President and a 
Vice-President; and that there should be an "Academical 
Senate," chosen by the Regents, intrusted with the general con- 
trol of education and discipline. Upon the receipt of this docu- 
ment in England it was ordered laid before the Privy Council ; 
but this was in April, 1775, and the mutterings of threatened 
war were louder than the appeal of education. 

At this time, also. President Cooper was destroying his 
popularity in New York by his strongly pronounced Tory senti- 
ments. His political pamphlets were so violent, in fact, that 
he became one of the most hated men in America, until finally 
popular resentment drove him from the College in May, 
1775, and forced him to flee the country on an English ship of 
war. 

Although the earlier years of Dr. Cooper's administration 
were successful, there can be no doubt that his violent Toryism 
inflicted incalculable injury upon the College. Naturally, per- 
haps, but most unjustly, it was assumed that the institution 
sympathized with his views; whereas, as subsequent events 
amply demonstrated, the President was the exception, and both 
officers and students were with almost entire unanimity loyally 
devoted to the cause of their country. To Cooper's personal 
unpopularity, and to the false impression which his attitude 
created may be attributed the peremptory demand of the Com- 

[15] 



KINGS COLLEGE AND COLUMBIA COLLEGE 

mittee of Safety that the College buildings be surrendered for 
military purposes which caused the sudden suspension of all 
exercises and the dispersion and loss of the library and scien- 
tific apparatus. It remained for the alumni to restore confi- 
dence and to vindicate the loyalty of their Alma Mater, and 
this task was nobly achieved by Alexander Hamilton, Gouver- 
neur Morris, John Jay, Robert R. Livingston, Egbert Benson, 
Robert Troup, and their associates. 

Dean Van Amringe in writing of "The Alumni of King's 
College," states the facts none too strongly when he says that, 
"it was the great good fortune and the glory of King's College, 
in its brief career of twenty-two years, during which it educated 
upwards of one hundred young men, to contribute through 
them, in a remarkable degree to the welfare of the country." 

From April 6, 1776, to May 15, 1784, the doors of the College 
were closed to students ; but during the interval the corporate 
existence of the institution was preserved and its endowments 
were protected as well as a state of war permitted. Immedi- 
ately upon the convening of the State Legislature in 1784, the 
surviving Governors of the College presented the following 
petition : 

To THE Honorable the Legislature of the State of New York. 

The Petition of the Subscribers Governors of the College commonly called 
Kings College. 

Humbly Sheweth — That the greater Part of the Governors of the said 
College have since the commencement of the late War died out or departed 
this State whereby a sufificient number of Governors cannot be convened for 
the carrying on of the Business of the said College agreeably to its Charter. . 

That many Parts of the said Charter are inconsistent with that Liberality 
and that Civil and Religious Freedom which our present happy Constitution 
points out — and that an Alteration of that Charter in such points as well as an 
Extension of the Privileges of the said College so as to render it the Mother 
of an University to be established within this State would tend to diffuse 
Knowledge and extend Literature throughout this State. 

Your petitioners, therefore, influenced by these motives, humbly submit 
the said Charter to the Revision and correction of the Legislature so as to 

[16] 



KING S COLLEGE AND COLUMBIA COLLEGE 

render it more adequate to these important Ends, humbly hoping that your 
honorable Body will confirm to the corporation of Kings College such Estate 
as was unquestionably appropriated to its use. 

New York, 24th March, 1784. 

Leonard Lispenard Geo. Clinton 

Jno Livingston Ricd Morris 

\Vm Walton J as Duane 

Sam Bayard, Junr. Gerard Bancker 

Egbt Benson 
J. H. Livingston 
Saml Provoost 
John Rodgers 
John Morin Scott. 

James Duane, then a member of the State Senate, promptly 
introduced a bill entitled, 'An Act for establishing a University 
within this State'. It is to be noted that Duane was a Governor 
of King's College, and had been a Governor and one of the most 
influential legal members of the Board when the draft of Myles 
Cooper's charter was prepared, and that he was one of the signers 
of the petition of 1784, praying for an alteration of the charter 
and for an extension of the privileges of the College so as to 
render it "the Mother of an University" within this State, in the 
very words of the Cooper charter. The inference which the 
recurrence of this sentence suggests finds confirmation in the 
phraseology and distinctive features of the Act passed by the 
Legislature in May, 1784, establishing a University composed 
of a group of colleges, and governed by a Board of Regents, with 
a Chancellor and Vice-Chancellor at its head, and it can scarcely 
be doubted that the idea of a State University originated 
in the charter drafted and approved by the Governors of 
King's College in 1774. The Act as passed, however, differed 
radically from the bill introduced by Duane but not in the 
manner indicated by its title which was changed to "An 
Act for granting certain privileges to the College heretofore 
called King's College, and for altering the name and Charter 
thereof, and erecting an University within this State." The 

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KING S COLLEGE AND COLUMBIA COLLEGE 

amended title of the Act was ingeniously misleading, for 
instead of "granting certain privileges to the College hereto- 
fore called King's College," it actually robbed the College of 
its property and franchises and abolished its governing board. 
Such was the effect of the Act of 1784. It was the irony of 
fate that the proposal to create King's College the mother of 
a State University should have resulted in a statute which was 
so directly contrary to the intention of the proposers. By the 
terms of the statute all the corporate rights vested in the 
Governors of King's College by Royal Charter and all its en- 
dowments were transferred to a new corporation, known as the 
Regents of the University of the State of New York. It was no 
less than an act of confiscation, and it may safely be asserted 
that the statutes of this country present no more flagrant vio- 
lation of an essential principle of justice, which, as Daniel 
Webster demonstrated in his argument in the Dartmouth Col- 
lege case, had been recognized by the courts for centuries, and 
which, at a later date, was embodied in the Constitution of the 
United States, and affirmed by the United States Supreme 
Court of the United States.^ 

In one respect only the College was the gainer by the statute, 
in that it acquired a new name inspired by the patriotic spirit of 
the Revolution, made familiar for the first time in history by the 
words of the song, sung by Washington's soldiers : "Columbia, 
Columbia to glory arise," and rendered still more appropriate 
in later years by the national character which the University 
has attained. This thought has been beautifully expressed 
by a poet of today in the lines : 

"One is thy name with the name of the nation; 
One is our love for our country and thee." 

Apart from the fundamental wrong perpetrated by the Act of 
1784, it was defective and ill-considered in many of its details, 
and but little time was required to demonstrate its unworkable 
character. At the legislative session of 1787 two bills were in- 

^ Dartmouth College vs. Woodward, 4 Wheaton, U. S., 518. 

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KING S COLLEGE AND COLUMBIA COLLEGE 

troduced, one by Alexander Hamilton and a second by L'Hom- 
medieu. The general purpose of the former was to revive the 
original charter of King's College, and to restore the rights and 
privileges of the Governors of King's College to their legitimate 
successors, the Trustees of Columbia College ; and of the latter 
to provide for the development of the schools and academies 
of the State. Hamilton, Avhile resenting the wrong which had 
been done to his Alma Mater and determined to undo it, fully 
recognized the great advantage of a well-organized central body 
which should direct and control the general educational policy 
of the State, and which should promote the establishment of 
educational institutions, and with the statesmanship which has 
rendered his name immortal, he devoted himself to the accom- 
plishment of both of these objects. As the result of his efiforts, 
seconded by Duane and Jay, who were also members of the 
Legislature, a compromise measure was reported, entitled, "An 
Act to institute a University within this State and for other 
purposes therein mentioned," which met the approval of all in- 
terests and became a law on April 13, 1787. The first seven 
sections of the Act provide for the establishment of a State 
University under the control of a Board of Regents, with power 
to visit and inspect all the colleges, schools, and academies in the 
State, and to grant charters and degrees ; and the remaining four- 
teen sections, the purport of which is so modestly described in the 
title of the statute as the "other purposes therein mentioned," 
confirm the Royal Charter granted in 1 754 to the Governors of the 
College of the Province of New York in the City of New York, 
change the name of the College to Columbia College, and grant 
to the Trustees of Columbia College all the franchises, rights, and 
property formerly enjoyed by the Governors of King's College, 
with the right of perpetual succession : thus undoing the wrong 
perpetrated by the Legislature in 1784 and continuing the 
corporate existence of the College founded in 1 754. 

ToHamilton's wise statesmanship and his strict sense of justice 
are attributable the features which distinguish the Act of 1787 

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KING S COLLEGE AND COLUMBIA COLLEGE 

from that of 1 784. The University statute as redrawn byHamilton 
rescued the educational institutions of the State from poHtical 
control and established a system which has proved of inestima- 
ble value to the State, and at the same time it restored to the 
College the rights and privileges which were its birthright, re- 
sults for which both the State and the College may well be ever- 
lastingly grateful. 

Looking back upon King's College and the early days of 
Columbia College in the perspective of a hundred and sixty 
years, two figures are pre-eminent, that of Samuel Johnson, who 
put life into the College and gave it form and substance; and 
that of Alexander Hamilton who restored it to life by reviving 
its independent corporate existence. To measure the debt 
which the Columbia of today owes to these men Vv^ould be im- 
possible, and still more to estimate the service rendered by the 
College which they founded and cherished to the city, the state, 
and the nation. But if we contrast the eight students who con- 
stituted the first class of King's College with the fourteen 
hundred enrolled in Columbia College during its last academic 
year, or with the twenty thousand who received instruction 
in all the schools of Columbia University during the same 
period, we must realize that King's College has in fact become 
"the Mother of a University." 



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LIBRPIRY OF CONGRESS 



029 929 171 6 



